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Common Terms
Common Terminology This is a list of common terminology found in World of Warcraft. (To find a specific term, hit ctrl + f to bring up your browser's word search, then type in the term you are looking for.) 0-9 ;10-Man :This refers to a type of raid which requires 10 different people to group together in order to fight monsters within the raid instance. Originally, 10-mans were special raids; however, since the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, all raids have had both a 10-man and a 25-man form. ; 25-Man :This refers to a type of raid which requires 25 different people to group together in order to fight monsters within the raid instance. Since the Burning Crusade expansion, 25-mans have been the main raids; however, since the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, all raids have had both a 10-man and a 25-man form. ; 40-Man :This refers to a type of raid which requires 40 different people to group together in order to fight monsters within the raid instance. Since the Burning Crusade expansion, 40-mans have been obsolete; however, the 40-man raids from the original release can still be experienced, though levels and gear have allowed players to run them with far fewer players. Some 40-man raids can even be completed by a single player. ; 5-Man :Refers to a 5-man party, used to distinguish from larger raids. All dungeons, regular and heroic, are 5-man dungeons, and cannot be entered by more than 5 people at a time. A ;Adds :Refers to enemies that spawn or wander by during fights. ; Alt :Alternate, referring to a character that is not considered a player's primary focus (Main). ; Aspect of the Dazed :This could refer to either the Hunter class skill Aspect of the Cheetah or the Hunter class skill Aspect of the Pack, called this because when either of those aspects are active, anyone under the effect is automatically dazed when attacked. This term is used especially in situations when a Hunter has Aspect of the Pack active whilst a group that they are part of are in combat. B ; Blue :In the game, items are color-coded to identify status. Blues are items of rare quality. Most blue items are obtained either as very rare loot drops off of random monsters in the world, or from running dungeons, in which the boss monsters drop blue items. (The exception to this is end-game dungeons such as Zul’Aman or Zul’Gurub, in which the boss monsters drop epics.) :On the World of Warcraft Forums, the name "Blue" refers to the community managers or other Blizzard employees, as their posts are color coded blue. ; Body Pull :This term refers to the use of proximity in order to gain the attention of one or more aggressive monsters. This term is used for intentionally pulling via proximity. For unintentional proximity pulling, see Face Pull. ; Burn :The act of using an ability that has a long 'recharge time'. When a Hearthstone has just been used, and is in cooldown, a player is said to have 'burned his Hearthstone', until the cooldown period completes. It can also mean the action of maximizing one's DPS by any means possible at a critical juncture in order to kill a mob or boss as quickly as possible. For example, often used toward the end of boss fights in raids. Part of the phrase: "burn him/her/them down". C ; C :Copper Coin, the smallest of the three coin values in the game. ; Cap :This refers to an end point, after which point a player character can no longer gain from a stat or action. This includes the level cap, at which a character no longer gains experience, a stat cap such as ‘haste cap’, where a player no longer gains benefit from raising that stat any further, or a ‘quest log cap’, where a player has obtained the maximum number of quests in their log and must complete some before the game will allow him or her to obtain any more. ; Crowd Control CC :Crowd Control, which is the use of various mechanisms used temporarily to limit an enemy's movements or behavior, such as a mage casting polymorph (a.k.a. 'sheeping'), a hunter using ice trap, a warlock using banish, a rogue using sap, and so on. ; Chant :This term is short for Enchant, referring to the profession ‘Enchanting’, the act of an Enchanter putting an enchant upon an item, or the actual spell that casts the enchant upon the item. ; Clothies/Cloth Casters/Cloth Wearers :These terms refer to Mages, Warlocks, and Priests, each of whom are restricted to cloth armor for the entire game. Cloth wearers are notorious for taking great amounts of damage from physical sources, given their lack of heavy armor. ; Cooldown CD :The amount of time needed for a spell or ability to reset so that it may be used again. ; Corpse Camping :This occurs when a player deliberately stays near an enemy player's corpse, waiting for them to resurrect in order to kill them when they resurrect. This is considered griefing and is a reportable offence. ; Corpse Running :Refers to making a Corpse Run, which involves running a character's 'ghost' or 'wisp' from the graveyard to the site of the fallen body. ; Critter :Low level creatures that do not give experience points when killed, and do not attack you at all. Examples include rats, cows, small cats, and squirrels. D ; Drop :This refers to the loot which players can find on the bodies of dead monsters. E ; Elite :Mobs with a golden dragon around their portraits are elite. Elite mobs are much stronger than regular ones; their relative strength varies, and typically they are extremely difficult to defeat alone even if they are three or four levels below the player. Instances contain mostly elites. ;Epics/Epix :This refers to epic-quality loot from monsters, which is color-coded purple in game. Most epic-grade loot drops off of bosses from raids or end-game dungeons, though there are a number of extremely rare BOE epics that can drop from any monster of an appropriate level range in the game. Epic gear is the standard by which all other gear is judged. F ; Face Pull :Similar to a body pull, but suggests a careless or unintentional proximity pull. Often used when a player who is not the tank initiates combat. ; Fear :This term refers to any spell which causes the monster to run in panic. Dangerous in crowded rooms, where a feared monster may inadvertently agro other monsters in the area. ; Flagged :To be 'Flagged' means a player has (willingly or unwillingly) opened himself to attack from any hostile members of the opposing faction. It is possible to 'self-flag' by attacking a civilian of the opposing faction, buffing another flagged player, or by typing /pvp. However, when removing 'flagged' status, there is a five-minute delay before the player is 'unflagged'. G ; G :Gold (coin). Gold is the largest single currency in the game. 100 copper = 1 silver. 100 silver = 1 gold. Copper and silver are both capped at 99, after which they are auto-converted to the next higher denomination. ;Glass Cannon :A spell-casting class that can deal large amounts of damage at a distance, but are relatively weak in close quarters. Often used for mages and other spellcasters, who have great offensive capabilities at long distance, but with their cloth armor and very low hit points are the most fragile class in the game. ; Greys :Poor quality items, so named because the name of the item is grey in color. See also: Vendor Trash. ; Greens :Greens are items of uncommon quality, and are color-coded green to identify their status. ; Graveyard Run :Running as a ghost or wisp from the graveyard to your corpse. See also: Corpse Running. H ;Hearth :To use a hearthstone, or other similar use item, to return to one's home location. I ; Imba :Imbalance(d)/unfair. A term commonly used to complain when one class is overpowered compared to another. ; Inc :Short for "incoming" which is a term used by someone to notify their fellow party members of an aggroed mob coming their way. Also used to announce the imminent casting of a buff, portal, or useable object. K ; Kek :In World of Warcraft, the Alliance and the Horde use two different languages (Common for the Alliance, Orcish for the Horde). A Horde player saying 'lol' will, to an Alliance player, appear to be saying 'Kek'. 'Kek' is often used as a term by both Horde and Alliance to indicate mirth. L ;LEEROY :The act of charging unprepared into combat and causing your party/raid group to be wiped out. This is a reference to the "Leeroy Jenkins" gameplay video circulating online (see YouTube for more details). The original video gained so much popularity that Blizzard added an achievement to be gained (with title) from successfully opening and killing 50 egg-spawned whelps in the UBRS Rookery. ; Legendary :Legendary items are of extremely high quality, and are color-coded orange to identify their status. These items are exceptionally rare, and are obtained through repeated item gathering in high level raid dungeons and various other raid level quests. ; Link :The act of placing the mouseover stats of an item in the trade/party/guild/say channel by shift-clicking the item while the chat bar is open. Commonly used in the trade channel in capital cities while selling, buying, trading, or crafting. ; Lock :Abbreviated form of Warlock. M ; Main :Refers to the character a player spends the most time on. See Also: Alt ; Main Assist :A player designated to select a target for other players to attack. Usually used in Raids to concentrate damage on one enemy at a time during larger battles. ; Mats :Abbreviation for "materials" needed in a trade recipe or pattern. ; Mob :A name used to describe a group of aggressive NPC's in a group or close proximity to each other. People commonly use this term to describe creeps even when there's only one, because of an older term stemming from text based MMO games, where the coding utilized designated these NPCs as "Mobile Objects." ; Mumble :A Voice-over-IP (voice chat) program often used by World of Warcraft players to communicate with each other during parties, raids, events, etc. Use is not widely spread at the moment, but is growing. N ; Nelf :A contraction of 'Night Elf'. (Blood Elves contracted to "Belf," respectively.) ; Neutral Auction House :An auction house (see Auction House) which is open to both Horde and Alliance, as opposed to faction-specific auction-houses. Neutral Auction Houses are found in Gadgetzan, Booty Bay, Shattrath, and Dalaran. ; Noob/Newb/n00b/nub etc :A basic, derogatory derivation of "newbie" - someone new to the game, applied to a new player that does not know what they are doing. A player that "sucks" at playing their class. Can also be applied in jest to someone who has made a mistake or error that new players often make. Commonly used as a synonym for morons, idiots, imbeciles, or as a general replacement. O P ; Pat/Pats :Short for Patrol. A 'patrol' is a group of NPCs that wander a set path in an instance. ; Port :References the Mage ability to open a portal to a capital city. May be used in a sentence requesting a portal, such as "Looking for port to Darn" ; Proc :This normally refers to item's chance on hit or similar effect, or something's percentage of a special ability or effect to be produced. ; Proc Rate :This refers to the amount that a certain ability or item produces its on-hit chance effect. ; Purples :See: Epics Q R ; Rage :Warrior energy which begins at 0 and generates when a warrior inflicts or receives damage and is used by a warrior's skills and abilities. Also applies to a Druid in Bear or Dire Bear form. Rage slowly dissipates over time when the character is out of combat. See also: Energy, Focus, Mana, Runic Power ; Respec :The act of switching from one talent tree from another via Dual Talent Specialization or going to a class trainer to unlearn all your talent points. This allows you to reallocate them to change the focus of your character. ; Roll :This term refers to rolling for chests or rare items while in a party. /roll generates a random number, between 1 and 100 by default (though this is modifiable with optional parameters to the command), and is used to determine who receives the item. This term can also refer to creating a character; this usage is based off of pen-and-paper games, where the creation of a character is based on rolling dice to determine stats. S ; S :Silver (coin). 100 copper = 1 silver. 100 silver = 1 gold. ; Scrub :See: Noob ; Sheep :To cast the Mage's Polymorph spell on a creature or player. The base polymorph form is a sheep, hence the term ‘sheep’, though Blizzard has added several new polymorph forms to the game, including cat, pig, rabbit, penguin, and monkey. ; Solo :To complete a task individually, without help from others. ; Spec :Short for specialization. This refers to the talent tree or talent tree type that a player chooses. To 're-spec' is to visit a skill-trainer NPC and 'unlearn' all of the character's current talents, usually to re-distribute the talent points in a different way. ; Squishy :See: Clothy ; Strat (or Strath) :Short for "Strategy”, referring to the strategies used to defeat boss monsters in dungeons and raids, who often have unusual mechanics that force the group to react a certain way to defeat them. T ; Tick :Generally refers to a span of time between procs of an on-going effect. For example, a Warlock Damage-over-Time spell may be referred to as doing 500 damage every ‘tick’, which is generally two to three seconds of time. Health and Mana regeneration are referred to in the same manner. ; Toon :“Cartoon”. A player's character or avatar in game. ; Teamspeak :A chat client enabling players to communicate verbally and free up their hands for gaming. See also: Mumble, Vent U V ; Vendor Trash :Term used for gray items that can be safely sold to a vendor. ; Vent :Ventrilo. A voice-over-IP program similar to TeamSpeak. Most commonly used VoiP program used in World of Warcraft. W ; Wisp :The incorporeal form that the Night Elf takes when s/he has been killed. Also, as an April Fool's Day joke in 2006, Blizzard posted a page declaring Wisps as the new Alliance race for the expansion pack, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. X Y Z ; Zerg :To overwhelm an enemy or attack a target in an attempt to win by sheer numbers, rather than skill. Originates in the Blizzard game 'Starcraft', where the 'Zerg' are an alien race that can rapidly mass-produce small, weak units and overpower stronger units through brute force. ; Zerker :Shorthand for "Gurubashi Berzerker" a trash mob (often considered a sub-boss because of their toughness) in the 5 man instances Zul'Gurub. Category:Terminology